I mean I'm not going to run out and buy a $150 bottle of wine just because RP said it's a 96 pointer, not even if I had $150 to blow on an expensive bottle of wine.

If it were right in my wheelhouse regarding tastes... and he scored it 96 points... and I was sitting with $150 LOOKING for a nice bottle of wine to celebrate say, a 25th anniversary or a birth of a child or a lottery win or something, yeah I'd say it would be worth it.

I can certainly see that you know your wine. Most of the guests who stay here wouldn't know the difference between Bordeaux and Claret.
- Basil Fawlty
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I agree in principle with my interpretation of what Ryan and David said: The better question is, "Is any wine worth $150?"

Assuming you can afford it individually, I can't say no. I had two wines at a tasting over the weekend that wholesale around $150 and thus retail well north of $200 - <b>Gerard Raphet 2005 Clos de Beze</b> and <b>Alain Robert 1986 Champagne Clos le Mesnils</b> - and I'd certainly consider buying either one of them. In fact, several of us were talking about forming a foursome, buying one of each, and sharing them with other wines over a great dinner.

But the Parker element doesn't really do anything for me. Knowing that his tastes and mine consistently differ on many higher-end wines, the fact that a wine was a Parker 95 might make me <i>less</i> likely to consider it. But at the end of the day, I can only answer that question in terms of whether I think it's worth it, not on the basis of the score that any critic gave it.

Last edited by Robin Garr on Wed May 02, 2007 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

For me, $150 is a bit over the top. There are so many interesting wines I haven't tried at half that price that would still qualify as a splurge (and which I would feel a little less of that 'dangnabit this wine better be good' feeling).

I wouldn't base my purchase on points either, but I think Alejandro alludes to an important factor. For many of us, making a decision to splurge on a wine at that level is particularly challenging precisely because we don't know if it will be worth it--which is to say that we have never tried the wine. Oftentimes having the opportunity to sample just a bit of wine that goes for 100 or 150 bucks a bottle is one that is hard to come by for Joe One-Case. For my first big splurge ever, I did tons of research before laying down the cash for my first Krug. Delighted to say it most certainly did not disappoint, but nonetheless I was basically dependent on a lot of second-hand information and no previous experience. Sometimes a splurge is a leap of faith.

I wouldn't do it based on Parker (he seems to dislike many Napa wines that I like a lot). Maybe based ona trusted wine shop owner. Generally only based on tastings and experience with the producer.

I'm now bemoaning the fact that I cannot really afford the new release of one of these overpriced consumer products (Verite), which is a wine I love and which is having a release party this month. Ah well.

...(Humans) are unique in our capacity to construct realities at utter odds with reality. Dogs dream and dolphins imagine, but only humans are deluded. –Jacob Bacharach

I agree with Bill, you have to know the wine. There are wines scored highly by Robert Parker (or any other critic you want to name) that I wouldn't pay $20 for. And there are wines that I like that haven't scored that highly that I'll go to my ceiling for. My palate is the most important part of the calculation.

I've seen attempts to create a formula relating scores to price to determine what wines to buy. A sad misuse of Mathematics in my opinion.

Jay Miller I is a long-time internet wine geek and a great guy. Jay Miller II is a recent addition to the Parker team that faced some criticism for giving out lots of points to a number of different Spanish wines.